Device for the treatment of infarcted tissue and method of using the device

Abstract

Abstract This invention is a device and method for treating myocardial infarction by selectively heating the infarct scar to reduce the size of the scar tissue area (18) by shrinking the tissue in the heart (10), stiffen the floppy portion of the scar tissue, reduce the ventricular systolic wall tension, and increase the overall pumping efficiency of the infarcted heart (10) by eliminating a ventricular aneurysm, if present. The heat can be applied to, or induced in, the infarct scar. Force can also be applied to assist the reduction of the size of the scar (18) using the device of the present invention which has a heating element (24), and a scissor-like clamp (26) for squeezing two portions of the infarct scar together.

Inventors

• 👤 Michael D. Laufer

Bibliographic Details